Whale Eyes: A Memoir About Seeing and Being Seen
James Robinson
Illustrated by Brian Rea
Penguin Workshop
Published March 18, 2025
Amazon | Bookshop | Goodreads
About Whale Eyes: A Memoir About Seeing and Being Seen
From Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker James Robinson comes a breathtaking illustrated memoir for middle-grade readers (and adults, too) inspired by the viral, Emmy-nominated short film Whale Eyes.
Told through an experimental mix of intimate anecdotes and interactive visuals, this book immerses readers in James’s point of view, allowing them to see the world through his disabling eye conditions.
Readers will get lost as they chase words. They’ll stare into this book while taking a vision test. They’ll hold it upside down as they practice “pretend-reading”…and they’ll follow an unlikely trail toward discovering the power of words.
With poignant illustrations by Eisner Award-nominated artist Brian Rea, James’s story equips readers of all ages with the tools to confront their discomfort with disability and turn confused, blank stares into powerful connections.
My Review
I loved this book. It’s kind of written in two parts. The first part is really accessible to kids, packed with a lot of illustrations and examples of how James Robinson sees the world. Some of the illustrations show words written upside down or at different angles. One page includes an eye test that readers can perform by folding the page a certain way.
The second half of the book is a little more dense and is where Robinson talks more deeply about his journey with documentary filmmaking. It describes how he began filming about a passion project and then, in college, made a twenty-four-minute video about his visual disability, strabismus. That project led him to collaborate with the New York Times to make a series of videos about different people’s experiences living with disabilities.
Even though this part of the book will appeal more to older readers, I think Robinson relates important reflections about his childhood, what he’s realized about disability, and what he wishes adults had told him about it when he was younger. The writing throughout the book is smart and appealing.
Documentaries Mentioned in the Book
Here are some links and brief descriptions of video documentaries that James Robinson made and released as NYT Opinion pieces. All three are mentioned in the book. These are YouTube links, so they are available to watch for free. I watched all three. They are thoughtful and deeply engaging. I spent the afternoon after I watched them sending the links to friends and family members.
I Have a Visual Disability, And I Want You to Look Me In the Eye NYT Opinion Piece: This is a twelve-minute documentary about James and how he sees the world and how we see him. He writes about filming this video in the book.
I Have Face Blindness. This is How I Recognize You. NYT Opinion Piece: This documentary, also produced by James Robinson, introduces viewers to a man named Paul who has prosopagnosia, or face blindness.
I Stutter. But I Need You to Listen. NYT Opinion Piece: Another documentary produced by Robinson about writer John Hendrickson.
Content Notes
Recommended for Ages 10 up.
Profanity/Crude Language Content
None.
Romance/Sexual Content
None.
Spiritual Content
None.
Violent Content
References to thoughtless and hurtful comments made by kids or adults about James’s eyes.
Drug Content
None.
Note: This post contains affiliate links, which do not cost you anything to use but help support this blog. I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.
What a fantastic sounding and unique book! I’ll be tracking down a copy for sure. I hope you are having a Marvelous Middle Grade Monday!
I hope you get a chance to read it. Happy MMGM!
This sounds fascinating, and I love the interactive part. It’s a great way for kids (and adults!) to get a glimpse so to speak of life from someone else’s viewpoint, to see what it would be like to suffer from this condition. It’s fantastic (and inspiring) that he then went into making documentaries. Thanks for sharing!
This sounds so interesting because we get to see how the author really sees the world. And it’s really cool that the first part is interactive. And James Robinson sounds amazing to have gone on to make documentaries.
I liked it a lot. The documentaries are amazing, too!
Thanks, Valinora. Happy MMGM!
This sounds really intriguing. When I was studying for my special ed license, we did an activity where we put on different goggles to “see” what someone with different eye conditions see.
Strasbismus is very common, so I think this will be great for kids with that condition or those would like to learn more about it.
Those goggles you used in your program sound really cool. I had no idea that strabismus is common, but my mom said the same thing (that it was common) when she watched the documentary with me.